HOTO7004 Tourism Digital Distribution Strategies Assignment Sample
Introduction
Brand loyalty is an important element of brand performance, and it is related to the digital marketing strategy of a company. In the hospitality industry, the engagement of the Customer with the hospitality organization is ensured with the constant marketing and promotional approach. Implementation of digital technology enhances the effectiveness o0f the business operations and minimizes the threats from the businesses.
Usage of the computer, mobile, cloud computing and server-based automated booking facilities improves the organizational performance of hospitality organizations. The digital marketing strategy refurbished the business operation policies and reestablished the brand in front of the customers. IoT and Blockchain tools also significantly improve the service quality of businesses and improved communication facilities within the business operations.
Digital Distribution Environment
Target Market
Profile
The selected persona for the digital travel distribution is the Millennials from the UK and European region. Millennials are the generation that reached the adult age at the early part of the twenty-first century, and this generation is most digital technology dependent.
The development of digital technologies mostly happened in the early twenty-first century (Alrawadieh, Alrawadieh& Cetin, 2021). Millennials are tech-dependent and mostly in the corporate sectors. The millennials who are basically working in the Corporate sectors and IT firms are selected p[erson for this business. The rationale behind the selection of this population for the purpose of digital distribution is the strength of reliability of this generation over the digital technologies.
Purpose of The travel
The purpose of the target customer is to enjoy the vacations. The purpose of their travel is to build a connection with the different social cultures of the promoted region and the natural beauty of that region (Hao, Xiao & Chon, 2020). The trip offers a chance to enjoy the true vibe o9f nature, which is necessary to rediscover the creativities.
The natural touch and engagement with the natural events enhances the positive vibe and makes the potential Customer be sustainable in taking the workloads. Travelling offers them a chance to rediscover their own soul and their own demands, likes and dislikes. Travelling is a chance to meet with the inner soul (Hao, Xiao & Chon, 2020). Their purpose is to enjoy a lavish lifestyle at hotels full of amenities with extreme levels of comforts.
Activities they intend
As the selected population and the targeted population are interested in the natural event, the population is intended to explore the world from a new perspective. They want to stay near nature, and enjoy the beauty of the sea, and tend to cycle in the seas.
The overall intention of the Customer is to enjoy the different activities related to the natural elements. The targeted Customer has an intention to connect with the cultural atmosphere and get attached to the regional cultures (Verma & Chandra, 2018). Their motive is to enjoy the serene beauty of nature and understand the cultural blend of the region.
They want to take adventurous activities in the lap of nature. They intend to sp[ednd some quality time in the hotel near the tourist places, so the availability of the hotels will be observed by the customers in selecting the tourist destinations.
Preferred Destinations
The targeted population has the purpose of travelling to places of natural wonders. So their preferred locations will be the hill stations, seas, beaches and forest reserves. The natural beauty of these places and the biological diversity are at the centre of their purpose for travel (Wang, Wong & Narayanan, 2020).
The destinations with ease of travel and modern travel facilities will be preferred by the targeted population. The smooth transportation process and access to digital technologies in daily life will be preferred by the Tourists—the locations where the digital technologies will be analyzed by the targeted Customer in selecting the travel destination.
Principal – Digital Distribution
To select the region for tourism, the selection of the staying and the lodging is important for the customers (Hultmanet al., 2021).So to select the places for the travelling the Customer will consider the availability of hotels near the tourism destination will be preferred by the visitors in selecting the places for the tourism destinations.
Options available for selecting the tourism destination is the presence of the hotels in the tourism destinations. The Hotel booking facilities and the service quality of the Hotels published on the websites will be selected to identify the preferred locations for the tourism destination (Teng, Lu & Huang, 2018). The online booking facility and advance payment options, and attractive discount facilities are required to improve to reach the customers of the preferred locations.
The promotion of the hotels and the staying options in the tourist needs to be advertised and promoted on social media and other distribution channels to attract the customers towards the desired tourist locations.
Digital Distribution – Channel evaluation
The two selected digital distribution mediums for the business promotion of the tourist destination is Social media marketing and Video Marketing.
Social Media Marketing
Cost to the principle :
The cost to the principle of Social media marketing is very reasonable. The Major costs for this channel of digital distribution are based on the cost for the post creation and post design and the cost for the content creation of the written contents of the Social media along with the cost of the management of the posts on the social media.
Social marketing needs a social media manager and a graphic designer to promote the post on social media with effective and engaging content (Yoga, Korry&Yulianti, 2019). The visual content has a higher level of engagement on social media, so the contents on social media will be created with the excellent touch of graphics designers.
Along with the cost for graphical contents, the cost for the promotion is also included in the Social media marketing, and the salary of the Social media managers is exclusive from the costing (Yoga, Korry&Yulianti, 2019).
To make social media more effective, a website on the business of the hotel is also required where the relevant information about the hotel will be published along with a portal for customer review so the overall cost for Social media marketing can be varied in between £400 to £1000.
Control over the channel:
The facility of social media marketing is that it can be reached to the specified and targeted population for the promotion (Bilgin, 2018). The customization policy of Social media has different elements of considerations. The analytical approach is specifying those elements and considerations for advertisement comes into a profitable result for the firm (Bilgin, 2018).
The age of the Target audience, the location of the target audiences, even the professional and the profile specifications of the Customer’s elements can be specified in the social media marketing. Hence promotion through social media marketing to reach the potential Customer is done in a very controlled nature.
Quality of Contact:
The social media channels have options to reach the customers within a fraction of a second, and the response of the Customer or the targeted audiences can be accessed with minimum hurdles. Social media channels have a direct communication button, and the messenger is the most suitable option to connect with the audiences and customers (Adeola, Hinson & Evans, 2020).
Customers can contact through the messages and voice calls to cover the messenger link provided in the advertisement and on the page from which the advertisement is published. Even the WhatsApp button can also be added to the pages and advertisement to make it easily accessible to the customers and the targeted audiences of the company.
Ease of booking
Each of the social media posts is designed with a call for action button, and that call for action button is the link to the booking (Bilgin, 2018). The captions of the social media posts and the first comment on the social media posts should have the link to book the hotels that enable customers to book the hotels immediately after seeing the advertisement.
Facebook and other social media channels had their inbuilt browsers that browsed the Tiny URL links provided from the advertisements very smoothly. So the ease of communication will be more transparent in the Social media marketing option.
Video Marketing
Cost to Principle
Video marketing can be performed in two ways, one is through the influential marketing of Video marketing approach, and the other one is the Video marketing on the television media channels (Adeola, Hinson & Evans, 2020). The cost of both the marketing is usually very high as the cost for the influential marketing through the video advertisement is done through the social media influencers (Mostly through the YouTuber’s video).
The cost of remuneration of the influential personality is comparatively high, but depending on the engagement to that influence, the effectiveness of the advertisement can be accessed. Video advertising in the television media channel is more costly, and in present times, it is a very backdated process still the traditional approach of reaching the customers (Bilgin, 2018).
The advertising campaign on the television platforms costs almost £6 per day for promotional purposes (Yoga, Korry&Yulianti, 2019). In contrast to social media marketing, the cost of video marketing is high and with huge differences in the cost of these two mediums.
Control over the channel:
The control over the channel is very less as the Viewership of the advertisement can not be customized, and their target of the advertisement can not be predefined in this marketing approach (Iankovaet al., 2019).
The video marketing on the YouTubes and the influential marketing approach has unrestricted audiences as the Audiences are very organic and dependent on the content. The same is applicable in the case of video advertisement on television channels.
Quality of Contact:
The quality of contact through this channel has no direct option to communicate with the audiences, and audiences also have no direct option to communicate with the advertiser. Passive communication is the major issue of this marketing approach.
The published information regarding the company and the advertiser, is the only way to connect (Iankovaet al., 2019). But the quality of contact is complex, as the Customer needs to be very concentrated on the advertisement to connect with the advertiser.
Ease of booking:
The ease of booking is very complex and lengthy as no direct call for action button is there on the advertisers’ end. The lack of a direct call for action impacts the response rate from the advertisement (Adeola, Hinson & Evans, 2020). Customer and potential audience need to note down or memorize the options for communication and booking process to book the hotels.
Considering above mentioned facts and evidence of the communication channels, it can be stated that social media marketing will be the most effective way of communication for the business.
Implications for loyalty
Loyalty
Primarily the customer loyalty is a process of interaction with brands and products on a regular basis. In a more simple interpretation, customer loyalty is the process through which a customer directly interacts with a brand and purchases the products of a brand or takes facilities of the services of a brand on a regular basis is termed as brand Loyalty (Raduzzi& Massey, 2019).
Brand loyalty is a term related to the brand value and value proposition of the brand to the customers.
Brand loyalty can be built with different approaches, but the most important approach of brand loyalty is built with delivering the proposed value to the customers. When the forecasted values are delivered effectively and on a regular basis to the customers, brand loyalty is formed.
Customer loyalty is very much relevant to the brand royalty. When a brand keeps its royalty, the customers also show their loyalty towards the brands.
The present situation of the market and the competitiveness of the companies in customer retention give a new form of loyalty to be considered in the business field. That new model of royalty is the Commitment loyalty model (Direction, 2020). The customer loyalty model suggests that the Customer with higher commitment to the brands is highly loyal to the brands.
In the customer loyalty model, the three things master to get success in customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is built with three fundamental elements, and these are the trust for the brand and the value proposition of the brand, along with the customer satisfaction from the performance of the brand (Raduzzi& Massey, 2019).
The product or the brand is committed to the Customer to deliver the values to the Customer to build a satisfied customer base of the brand, where the customers anticipate that the brand will deliver values to them. The bridge of loyalty is built within this juncture, where the proposed values of the brand are constantly meet the expectation of the customers.
Here the successful brand is built. When the values are delivered to the clients or the customers, the trust is built in the Customer’s mind for the selected brand (Popp &Woratschek, 2017). This trust influences the Customer to opt for the same brand again, anticipating the deserved values that were delivered earlier to the Customer.
If the anticipated values are delivered, then customers become satisfied with the brand performance, which influences the brand value of the company, and the Customer becomes committed to the brands (Raduzzi& Massey, 2019).
This commitment is the loyalty of the Customer towards the brand and product. Retaining customers through attaining customer loyalty is ensured with the analysis of the behavioural purchase strategy and the psychological attitude towards the brand. Brand loyalty has positive importance on the Customer’s emotional status and the mood of the Customer. Based on the Customer’s emotional attachment with the brand, the success of the brand is ensured.
The brand makes the Customer happy with their value proposition, and the affectionate attitude of the Customer promotes the loyalty of the Customer towards the brand performance.
In the last two decades, customer loyalty in this industry has changed significantly and improves customer loyalty towards the brands. Implementation of digital technology improves the brand’s performance, and a competitive atmosphere is created within the market (Popp &Woratschek, 2017).
Customers have different options in their hands. Instead of staying loyal to a specific brand, the customers are trying to get the most reliable and influential brands based on their effectiveness and performance as the opportunities are increasing for the Customer, so customer loyalty towards the brands also diminishes.
How to Boost Loyalty
In the digital age, customer loyalty is easy to boost with the strategic moves above the presence in the digital media platforms.
Stellar Service experience:
If the brand has a Facebook page or a social media handle, then customers posted their queries and reviews about the brand on social media (Ong Nguyen &Alwi, 2017). A team to give response to that comments can attract the customers’ attention towards the brand and is also an effective brand building strategy by assisting customers instantly on the different platforms.
Unique Brand Voice
The best way to build customer loyalty towards the brand is to fulfil the social responsibilities of the brands. The brands have strong engagement with the social networks, and customers minutely observe the vibe of the company on the social media platforms (Popp &Woratschek, 2017).
The brand can relate its operation or values to a specific social value or a social event so that maximum media focus and customer attention can be gathered towards the brand. Most of the MNCs and their PR teamwork on these facts to create a positive brand image and to create a loyal customer base to the brand.
Rewards program
To succeed with the brand image building and to ensure customer loyalty for the brand, it is necessary to adopt the reward program for the customers (Lee, 2019). Based on the social media engagement with the brand or the p[urchasing power of the Customer, giving rewards to them is an outstanding approach to create a loyal customer base for the company.
Even the special observational days of the company or the special events can be observed with the reward program, and it improves the brand performance of the company.
Social media for brand Loyalty:
The social media platforms have strong potential to generate effective brand loyalty for the brand. The brand should have a special appearance on social media platforms where the different stories on the brand performance and the customer engagement can boost the customer loyalty towards the brand (Lee, 2019).
Brand oriented news articles can be published on social media handles to building up a strong brand image in front of the customers to boost customer loyalty.
Brand Community
Digital mediums offer significant opportunity to build a strong brand image for the company by creating a brand community, where the potential customers are added into the groups to publish regular updates on the brand performance; this online community can be Facebook Group or Instagram chat room or can be a telegram channel for the brand (Cho & Bae, 2017).
Consistent with the motto and tagline
The motto of the company and the tagline of the brand are the two most important factors that master customer loyalty towards the brand. For this purpose, the appearance of the company on the digital platform should have a consistent tagline and consistent brand name that attracts customers towards the brand. This consistent tagline and the motto of the company creates a sense of trust between the Customer and the brand, which fuels brand loyalty.
A platform for Expression
Brand image and brand loyalty are influenced by the approach of the brand towards the Customer (Yang et al., 2017). The brand should be more concentrated on the customer experience. For this purpose, a platform should be designed for the customers to express their opinions and express their thoughts about the brand.
Conclusion
The hospitality industries adopted the disruptive approach in their business management to gain competitive advantages with the implementation of digital technology.
Technology improves the revenue management system of the hotel industry as well as improves the performance of hotels. Digital enablement of the hospitality business errands an extreme level of sophistication in the business operation of the companies.
Digital distribution of the hospitality industries focuses on customer satisfaction with the identification of the potential segment of Customer for the business and improves the management of the business in that improved scenario of business.
Digital technology is data-driven, and it is helpful for strategic decision making as the business is related to the analysis of the collected information. Digital technologies like Big data technology and DBMS improve the identification of the target market and better utilization of the potential of the target market through strategic decision making.
Bibliography
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